ABSTRACT
The social and political structures of most cities were transformed in the half-century after 1270. More than the generation after the 'Black Death' of 1348-9, this period was transitional for the medieval cities of Europe, north and south alike. Except in Languedoc, occupational guilds came to share power with the older oligarchies of landowners and merchants and occasionally overthrew them. By the late thirteenth century Europe's population was outstripping its agricultural resources. While earlier the growing demand for industrial goods had both concentrated manufacturing in the cities and provided jobs there for newcomers, the cities and rural areas alike were reaching demographic saturation by 1270. The changes contributed to a shift in the balance of economic and political power among the Italian cities. Flanders was dependent economically on two political rivals: England for wool and France for grain. Urban leagues were more numerous and powerful in Germany than anywhere else outside Italy.
